Share Web Sites with Google Shared Stuff

Google has quietly introduced a new app of sorts called Shared Stuff, a social bookmarking service offering a strange balance of Google Bookmarks, del.icio.us, and Google Reader shared feeds with a heavy dose of Gmail integration. You can add items to your Shared Stuff with the bookmarklet at the Shared Stuff homepage. The service integrates with your Google account and Gmail contacts so that, for example, when you go to the Shared Stuff homepage you'll see shared stuff from your Gmail contacts (which sounds like a potential headache, since Gmail saves all of your contacts).In addition to the straight bookmarking aspect, the Shared Stuff bookmarklet also lets you email the page (again, integrated with your Gmail account), and you can even use the bookmarklet to share or bookmark the page with a different service, from Digg and del.icio.us to Facebook and Furl. Check out some of the Google Shared Stuff features in the gallery below.

Strangely, Shared Stuff is not entirely up to snuff yet and surprisingly buggy. I noticed a significant lag between the time I shared an item and when it showed up on my Shared Stuff page. Also, the bookmarket wouldn't let me share the same page twice unless I did so at the same time, meaning that I couldn't add a site to my Shared Stuff page, close the bookmark window, and then fire off the bookmarklet a second time to email the page to a friend. This is a strangely hodgepodge and kind of careless offering from Google, but the underlying ideas—like wide integration with your Google account—show promise.